


Into Arms Wide Open

by raspberrylimonade



Series: remember i love you (stydia prompts) [9]
Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post 5B, Sadie Hawkins Dance, Stydia, scydia friendship - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-15
Updated: 2017-04-15
Packaged: 2018-10-19 06:09:56
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,116
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10633881
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/raspberrylimonade/pseuds/raspberrylimonade
Summary: “I have someone in mind, I’m just trying to find the right time to ask.”She flipped her hair to hide her flush when she noticed Stiles’ expression soften into something…hopeful?Technically, her statement wasn’t false.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Prompt: The Sadie Hawkins dance is coming up and Lydia is planning on asking Stiles but she finds herself enjoying watching Stiles squirm waiting for her. But all that fun soon ends when another girl asks Stiles.
> 
> \+ Lydia’s going to ask Stiles to the Sadie Hawkins dance, but she’s planning on making sure Stiles doesn’t know that just yet. That is until another girl asks Stiles to the dance.
> 
> [both submitted on tumblr]

“I’m not going.”

“Scott - ”

“No.”

“Come on - ”

“No, Stiles, I’m not going.”

“Going for what?”

The two boys jumped (well, Stiles jumped, Scott just startled slightly as he was in a funk) at the new voice. Lydia stood before them, peering up with questioning eyes, bright green. Malia stood behind her, brows raised in expectation.

“I’m trying to convince Scott to go to the Sadie Hawkins dance,” Stiles explained, rolling his arms as he talked.

“You need a girl to ask you,” the werecoyote stated.

“Right, but he won’t say yes because he still misses Kira - he’s already been asked six times, by the way. Which I get, BUT,” the boy jabbed a finger at the air emphasise his point, “there’s always the option of going stag.”

“What does deer have to do with this?”

“It’s a figure of speech,” answered Stiles, Scott and Lydia at the same time, the latter adding a “honey” at the end. Malia’s eyebrows furrowed in confusion, but she didn’t press on.

“Alternatively,” Stiles continued, “one of you guys - well, girls - could ask him, platonically, of course, because you are good friends like that.”

He gestured at the two girls with a little shake of his head.

Lydia stilled. She loved Scott. He was one of her best friends. But she couldn’t ask him because…

Fortunately, Malia responded first.

“I would, but I already asked someone. Lydia?”

It took a while for Lydia to realise she was being addressed, and she quickly made to close her gaping mouth.

“Oh, uh, well I have someone in mind,” she said, and she couldn’t help the flicker of her eyes towards the two boys (who were still wearing their stunned expressions from Malia’s casual announcement.)

She flipped her hair to hide her flush when she noticed Stiles’ expression soften into something…hopeful?

“I’m just trying to find the right time to ask,” she finished, as casually as possible.

* * *

Technically, her statement wasn’t false.

She did have someone she wanted to ask to the dance, and she had put in a lot of thought as to when to ask him. Also how.

Her plan was not going to be messed up by Stiles Stilinski knowing she even had any plans. It might be a little harder to execute with him analysing her every move, but that was hardly a wrench.

She wants to ask Stiles. Who else would she ask? She’s shed the girl who would pick out the hunk with the best shirtless torso during a sports practice. She wants to ask someone who matters, who means something, who she genuinely feels something for.

She doesn’t mean anything against Scott, but ever since she woke up on the metal table in the vet clinic, what she wrote off as (read: tried to convince herself was) pack camaraderie and gratitude had intensified ten fold, so much that she could no longer deny that there was something else there. Something more.

Maybe his anticipation was a little endearing too.

He had flushed adorably at the muffin she got him during their free period. She really just wanted him to eat something, knowing he probably came to school on an empty stomach (no, a glass of milk did not count as breakfast.)

“Oh, you - you didn’t have to,” he’d sputtered out, before slowly picking at the pastry as if he expected to find something inside.

“It’s a muffin Stiles, not a fortune cookie,” she’d told him, and he’d sputtered again, trying to cover the fact that he thought she was asking him to the school dance (which she was, but not yet, not like this.)

Later, after an English class where she sleepwalked through some pointless group activity, Lydia agreed to help the teacher carry the rolls of used vanguard paper to the staff room, and Stiles’s eyes had gone wide when he spotted her in the hallway. She had smiled at him as she passed, and felt his gaze following her all the way down the hallway.

(For the record, she never considered making a poster. She’s not brave enough to put her feelings out there like that. Not like Stiles used to.)

He’d tried playing it cool during lunch, when she handed him her econs notes and asked him to quiz her before her test next period. Alright, she’ll admit this one was a little self-indulgent. A little extra practice never hurt anyone, but she was more than prepared for the test. She’d just wanted to see how Stiles would react.

He’d swallowed before saying “Of course” and then tried his best to hide his rifling through the papers as he quizzed her about European trade.

She only has econs in the afternoon. She finished her test early and spent her free time awaiting the three-thirty bell, when she will see him before lacrosse practice.

She reached his locker right as the last bell rang. Her eyes scanned the waves of students pouring into the hallways. Then she spotted him.

Their eyes met through the throng of students and he grinned as he made his way over to her. It was only as he got closer did the parting crowd reveal the object in his hands.

A small soft toy Yoda. Holding a flower.

“Hey,” Stiles greeted.

“Hi,” Lydia returned, her voice not as bright as she’d intended. “What’s that?”

His head quite literally jerked downwards, as if he’d momentarily forgotten the gift he was holding.

“Oh,” he said. “This. Guess I’m not going stag to Sadie Hawkins anymore.”

She could fell her throat closing up tighter, her heart plummeting further, but still she asked, “And who did you trick into asking you?”

Stiles laughed shortly through his nose as he loaded his unneeded books into his locker.

“Ha ha ha. Candace Larson. We had quite a few classes together freshman and sophomore year, and I’ve seen her at the cinema for both The Force Awakens and Rogue One.”

“Right,” Lydia said. She swallowed and forced a smile. “Good to know you aren’t alone in your nerdy pursuits.”

Stiles nodded at the book hugged too tightly to her chest. “Says the girl who reads about quantum mechanics for fun.”

Scott suddenly appeared at Stiles’ shoulder.

“Hey. Everything okay?”

He was looking at Lydia on the last two words, and the banshee pursed her lips together. _Dammit Scott, stop sniffing everyone’s emotions_.

“All good, buddy,” Stiles replied, shutting his locker. Then he looked at Lydia again. “You need us to come over earlier and set up for tonight?”

 _Tonight_. Her plans were ruined for tonight.

“Uh, nope. No, it’s fine. I got almost everything ready last night,” Lydia said, internally wincing at how unconvincing she sounded. “Don’t rush after practice. Take your time to shower…or something. Prada has an appointment anyway…”

She made sure they were inside the locker room before rushing home.

* * *

_You had a plan?_

_Yeah. Looked good on paper, not so much in reality._

Again, she technically did not lie when she said she had almost everything ready. They were going to have pack movie night at her house. Last time the pack got together just to hang out, several of them had a ferocious argument over choice of pizza toppings, so Lydia had decided that she would make each member a personal pan pizza. Her mother helped her prepare the dough and they had time to bake everything, so all Lydia was supposed to do now was heat the food up. When her friends came over, she would serve them their pizza, Stiles getting his last. He had been very vocal about not having pineapples, so his toppings were a generous amount of chicken shreds, a bit of pepperoni, extra cheese, and thin mushroom slices that formed the words _“GO TO THE DANCE WITH ME?”_

(It pained her to forgo proper sentence structure but there was not a lot of space on a 9-inch pizza.)

He would blush all cute, stutter out a “Yeah, of - of course Lydia. Yes I’ll go with you.” And proceed to devour his pizza. They would go to Sadie Hawkins and he would open the jeep door for her and they would dance happily, and then he’d ask if she wanted to grab some food after, and maybe ask her out while they were sipping milshakes somewhere.

She should have known that their plans never work.

She tried pulling out the mushrooms and rearranging them, but they were all half-buried in the extra cheese and ripped unsightly holes across the pizza surface. And yes, she’s a little fussy, but Lydia honestly couldn’t stand it when pizza got defaced like that. So she hid Stiles’ pan at the back of the fridge and reached for the leftover dough.

The doorbell rang a little an hour before her friends were due to arrive. Lydia paused - she was not expecting anyone else. Perhaps her mother had ordered something online. Shrugging, she pushed the ingredients aside and started to rinse her flour-covered hands.

And then the door swung open.

Logically, Lydia knew that a supernatural creature who was out to kill her wouldn’t have rung the bell, but she still reached for a weapon - settling on a long knife - and slowly inched towards the entryway.

The person that bumbled into her kitchen yelped when she lunged (and missed) and leapt at least three feet backwards and fell on their ass. Lydia let out an exasperated sigh when she realised who it was and quickly stuck the knife back into its holder. Then she turned to glare at Stiles, who was picking himself off the floor with ‘Holy shits’s and ‘that’s a freaking knife’s spewing from his mouth.

“You have a key to my house!” Lydia shrieked.

“I have a key to everyone’s houses, that’s not the point,” Stiles muttered, brushing himself off. He was still in his lacrosse outfit, Lydia noted.

“ - so next time, please answer your phone so your paranoid friend doesn’t jump to apocalyptic conclusions and nearly get himself killed!” the boy finished. “Where did you learn to use a knife anyway?”

“I don’t, I just grabbed it and - why are you here so early?” Lydia fired back.

“Well Scott said you smelled weird after school. Not weird as in, I mean, your chemosignals, you know?”  He pointed a finger at her. “Also, he metioned that you don’t have any appointments with Deaton this month.”

His eyes shifted to the counter behind her, the motion quickly followed by a smirk on his face.

“Ah,” he said. “Someone isn’t as ready as she claims.”

Lydia huffed, turning her body to follow Stiles’ as he made his way towards the fridge. “This is the last one. There’s plenty of time to get it done before _actual reporting time_.”

“Right. Anyway, er, do you have any juice or something? Because I came straight from practice..” he rubbed his neck sheepishly.

Lydia rolled her eyes. “Evidently,” she muttered, but still waved her hand to give him permission.

Stiles grinned as a thank you and proceeded to root through her refridgerator.

She was popping her newly prepared pizza in the oven when Stiles piped up.

“Hey, did one of the youngins join in at the last minute?” he asked. “’Cause there are enough pizzas here.”

Ohshitohshitohshit.

The pizzas - including Stiles’ old one, were in the fridge.

“You even _labelled_ them,” Stiles was still saying. “Where’s - aha! Found it!”

“Stiles don’t - ” Lydia started, but the boy had already whipped his pan out and was pulling the covering foil off.

She tried to grab the pan from him, but he held it above his head, out of her reach _Ass_ , she thought briefly. He _knew_ she took her heels off when she was at home and used it against her. He even had the gall to chuckle as she hopped up and down, arm stretched upwards.

He pressed himself into a corner where she couldn’t snatch the pan from him.

“Does everyone have a message?” he asked, and started reading out loud. “Go…to...the...”

She hung her head so she couldn’t see his face, just his feet moving as he turned to face her. 

“Lydia,” he said softly, the teasing tone previously in his voice no longer present. “You were going to ask me to the dance?”

Something strained in his voice compelled her to look up, and so Lydia did, green eyes meeting brown.

“Oh,” he said. _Oh_. She didn’t know if it was sad or awkward.

“It’s okay.” Her voice was choked by the pounding of her heart in her throat. “I wasn’t going to ask anymore - ”

“No,” Stiles interrupted. “I mean yes, I will - wait, you don’t want to ask me any more?”

Lydia shrugged, then brought her arms up to hug herself, shielding her from his confused and disappointed gaze.

“Why would I?” she replied. “You’re going with someone else.”

“But you wanted - want? - to ask me?”

She nodded.

“Then my answer is yes, Lydia. yes I will go with you.”

Her head snapped up, brows furrowed. “Did you not just hear me? _You’re going with someone else_.”

Stiles took a step forward, reaching out to set the pizza on the kitchen island. Once free his hands hovered by Lydia’s arms, as if he wasn’t sure if he was allowed to hold her.

“Lydia look,” he was saying, “if I had known you would’ve - I kept thinking the _whole day_ …if…I wouldn’t…I could never say no to you.”

His voice softened at the end, making Lydia sniff and step forward. His hands came to rest lightly on her arms. His thumbs rubbed gentle circles on her biceps.

Lydia ducked her head and stepped forward. Her forehead rest against Stiles’ chest. “It’s okay,” she told him. “I don’t expect you to change your plans for me. Someone asked first. You agreed. I’m too late.”  _Again_.

“It’ll never be too late, Lydia. Not when it comes to you,” Stiles whispered into her hair. They were no longer talking about just the dance, and they both knew it.

She smiled into his chest. This was why she wanted to ask out Stiles. Because he always went out of his way for her. Because he was sweet, and gentle, and caring. Because (as she realised when she was strapped down and bleeding out of a hole in her head, the voices chanting and calling for the death the person she most held dear, screaming her lungs out at a maniac, watching the shattered body slump to the ground, only for the boy she thought she’d never see again to _come back_ ) everything he had done for her, she would have done the same for him.

“Really though,” she said, pulling back just enough for her to look up at the whisky-eyed boy. “I’d hate for you to give up a cute Yoda because of me.”

Stiles chuckled, and Lydia felt it reverberate through his body from where her hands lay on his waist.

“Did you just say a Yoda soft toy is _cute_?” he teased. “Oh my god. Lydia Martin complimented something related to Star Wars. I should buy a lottery ticket.”

He laughed until she smacked his chest. He looked down at her again, and the mischievous glint in his eye was slowly replaced with the sweet softness Lydia had come to associate with him.

“You sure you don’t want me to go with you?” he asked.

Lydia stepped back again such that his hands slid down her arms to where she took them in her own.

“Yes Stiles,” she told him. “Candace seems nice.”

“I’ll save you a dance,” Stiles said. “Or two. Or a few, because Candace did say she just wants to eat from the extra dessert bar that’s only open to couples, and she figured I wouldn’t judge.”

She giggled, and he smiled at the sound.

“I really want to say yes to you though,” he mumbled, his thumbs tracing circles on her skin again.

Lydia gave his hands a squeeze. “Maybe next time?”

“I’ll hold you to that,” he answered. Then the implication of ‘next time’ hit him and he froze. “Wait - you’re saying you want to ask me to prom? Like our senior prom _prom_?”

“Maaaaaybe,” Lydia replied. Then she pulled him closer and rose onto her toes so her mouth could reach his ear. “If you don’t ask me first.”

She grinned as his neck flushed red, but it was quickly wiped off her face as Stiles shifted his head.

“It’s so on,” he whispered back.

He then then stepped back and leant against the island, arms folded across his chest. The only sign that they had just challenged each other to stage a promposal first was the small smirk on his face.

“So now what? You have an extra pizza you can’t exactly offer as seconds.”

Lydia mulled over Stiles’ words. The corners of her lips pulled into a smile.

“I think I know what to do with it.”

* * *

Scott sighed as he finally put his mum’s car into park.

Lydia watched her date over the console, seeing the lights dance in his empty eyes. Without realising it, her hand had reached past the console to find his.

“For what it’s worth,” she said. “I believe Kira would have asked you.”

Scott blinked and snapped out of his daze.

“I can’t believe you talked me into this,” he started, “but if I’m going with anyone…I’m glad it’s you, Lydia.”

He gave a small smile which Lydia returned.

“Also, I know you’re doing this for Stiles.”

“Luckily you two have similar pizza preferences,” Lydia muttered, trying to sound annoyed, but she couldn’t hide her widening smile.

Scott chuckled, spotting the boy in question waving at them from the school doors. “Well it is good to be actually going to a dance instead of sneaking into one.”

Lydia laughed through her nose, and let one of her best friends help her out of the car and lead her towards the school.

So maybe she was not attending the Sadie Hawkins with the first person she’d planned to go with, but she was still attending with her pack. And she still got to dance with Stiles. And she won a voucher in a lucky draw. And Stiles brought her to get fries and shakes after (not before dropping his date off, of course), and asked her out on a date for that weekend, and he kissed her on the cheek when he dropped her off at her place at 1.26 am in the morning, and texted her when he woke up the next afternoon, and Lydia realised that the plan was still in motion.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [raspberrylimonade](http://raspberrylimonade.tumblr.com) on tumblr and [stlnskissmartin](http://twitter.com/stlnskissmartin) on twitter!


End file.
